Mattress or cushion



March 18, 1941. A. J. scHoB MATTRESS OR CUSHION Filed Jan. 9, 1939 WU l Patented Mar. 18, l1941 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE MATTRESS OR CUSHION corporation of Illinois Application January 9,

2 Claims.

The invention has for its object to provide an edging for the peripheral top and bottom edges of all types of spring assemblies for upholstery for the several purposes of, first, cushioning said edges; second, reinforcing and stiiening the same, and third, providing a simple and eflicient means for securing the meeting' edge portions of the cover fabrics and boxing strip'of a mattress or seat cushion into which the spring assembly is incorporated.

A further object of the invention is to provide an edging of the type specified wherein a fabric covering for a strip of felt adapted to be folded over into embracing relation to a peripheraledge of .a spring assembly is so secured to said strip of felt or other suitable padding material as to reinforce and Stilien the latter as hereinafter particularly described.

Another object of the invention is to provide an edging for `the purpose described'which can be produced at very low cost and which possesses certain advantageous characteristics additionally to those hereinabove pointed out.

A suitable embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a cross-sectional view of anedging for spring assemblies constructed in accordance with the invention.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary detail cross-sectional view on an enlarged scale showing the edging of Fig. 1 mounted upon a peripheral edge portion of a spring assembly of the type illustrated in Fig. 4.

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2 showing the cover fabric and boxing stripl of a. mattress or seat cushion secured to a part of the edging as illustrated inFig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary plan view of a spring assembly of the type shown in Figs. 2 and 3 equipped with the edging shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary detail vertical sectional view of a spring assembly of a dilerent type than is shown in Fig. 4, equipped with the edging shown' in Fig. 1.

Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. 1 showing a modified form of construction.

The edging of this invention constitutes an improvement over the structure illustrated and described in U. S. Patent No. 2,129,038 dated September 6, 1938, wherein the marginal edge portion of a fabric sheet or of fabric sheets, bearing and secured to a layer of fibrous padding, is folded over upon the peripheral edge of a spring assembly, said marginal edge portion having a strip of fabric secured thereto which affords a iiange 1939, Serial No?. 249,856

to which the meeting edge portions of the cover fabrics and boxing strip of a mattress are secured, reference being had particularly to Figs. 7 and 8 of said patent.

The edging of the present invention diiers from the marginal portion of the fabric and pad structure of said patent in specic details of construction which provides a number of advantages over the structure of the said patent, as herebelow particularly described.

The edging of the present invention comprises a strip I of suitable felted material composed of any suitable type of bre and made in the customary manner common to cheap types of felt.

Disposed over one face of the strip l of felted material is a strip 2 of a suitable fabric which is secured along its side edge portions to the side edge portions of the strip l by means of stitch chains 3.

The said strip 2 is equipped midway between its side edges with a hem 4 which projects outwardly from said strip 2 and is of appreciable width.

In the majority of spring assemblies for upholstery of the all-metal type, the component group of upholstery springs is bordered at top and bottom by a border element suitably secured to the outermost portions of the terminal coils of the marginal springs of the group, but in some instances, especially in the cheapest types of such spring assemblies, border elements are omitted.

The border frame, as illustrated in Fig. 4 comprises the flat wiremember B which is encircled by the helical wire `5 which secures the marginal portions of upholsterysprings to said frame 6, as'shown in U. S. Patent No. 2,124,695, but in most instances the border frame consists of only a helical wire such as said wire 5. In such instances the portions of the helical wire border members bridge the open spaces between the portions of marginal springs embraced thereby, these bridge portions being very yielding and the entire border elements of this type being generally. of such a yielding nature as to permit lateral distortions of the spring. assembly during the operation of forcing the same into the customary envelope of fabric and padding constructed separately from the assembly, and also when the mattress into which such an assembly is incorporated is in use.

In instances where the assembly is devoid of border elements of any kind, the last-mentioned conditions pertain to an even greater extent and additionally, the peripheral edge portions of the envelope containing the assembly become irregular by sagging in the spaces between adjacent marginal springs of the assembly.

It is also common knowledge that because of an almost universal habit of persons to sit on the edge portions of mattresses when dressing and undressing, the padding between the peripheral edges of the spring assembly and the fabric portions of the envelope, become displaced and thereafter these peripheral edges of the spring assembly become tangibly apparent to those who seat themselves on the peripheral edge portions of mattresses, and, as these peripheral corners of the spring assembly are of a sharp nature in every instance, they cut through the outer fabrics of the envelope.

The edging of the present invention is designed primarily to provide a permanent means` for preventing the breaking down of the peripheral corners of mattresses, eliminate the subsequent wear on the outer fabrics and in addition thereto, stiiifen and reinforce the peripheral corners of the spring assembly to reduce the danger of the lateral distortions above referred to; also to afford an efcient means for preventing padding material overlying the upper and underlying the lower face of the assembly from being crowded into the space between the boxing strip and marginal springs of Ithe assembly and, further, to provide a Very strong and durable means for attachment of the edges of the boxing strip and the marginal edges of the cover fabrics of a mattress to the spring assembly, as particularly shown in Fig. 3.

Strips of felted material resist folding because of the natural stiffness of the material. In folding the strip I to embrace a peripheral edge portion of a spring assembly, as shown in Figs. 2, 3 and 5, the strip 2 of fabric secured to the strip I is drawn very taut, especially so if said strip I is relatively thick. This tautness of the strip 2 tends to restore the strip I to its normal shape independently of any self-restoring characteristic of said strip and, when the stripis secured in place on the spring assembly in its folded condition by means of staple fasteners l, or the like, the stiifness of the strip I is materially increased.

'The said staples 'l are preferably passed through the opposed edge portions of the strip I, including the similar portions of the strip 2, immediately and closely adjacent to the inner edges of the element or elements embraced by said strip l, so that the latter will hug the same closely. The said side edge portions of the strip I extend over an appreciable portion of each of the outermost portions of the terminal coils of the marginal springs of the assembly and cooperate with the latter to resist Very appreciably, .the tendency of the strip I to be swung from its normal position by tension on the'hem 4 when the latter is secured to the boxing strip 8 and cover fabric 9 of the mattress, as shown in Fig. 3, the said cover fabric 9 being drawn tautly over the pad--` lding I0.

Obviously the hem 4 will not ravel under inuence of stress thereon to release the stitching therethrough for securing the same to the boX- ing strip and cover fabric.

epesses Thus the strip I with its cover fabric 2 may be used as a border element (as shown in Fig. 5) in place of metallic members commonly used, or the same may be used as a jacket and reinforcing means for metallic border elements of spring assemblies. In all instances the edging provides what is commonly known in the art as an inner or invisible roll edge, the size of which is determined by thev thickness of the strip I and the stiffness of which is determined by the said thickness, the normal density of and width of the strip I additionally to the reinforcing and stiffening action of the strip 2. The additional advantage of the latter lies in providing a Very strong and durable means embodied in the hem 4 thereof, as a means of easily attaching the boxing strip and cover fabric to the spring assembly, and thus rendering the structure of this invention avery desirable and long sought for improvement in the art of mattress manufacture.

As shown in Fig. 6 the hem 4 of the strip 2 may be offset from the middle of said strip and thus extend from the folded strip I along a line disposed 'in outwardly offset relation to the plane of the face of the spring assembly when the strip I is folded into embracing relation to the peripheral edge of said face and thereby reduce the tendency of the edging to be rotated under the influence of the tautness of the hem 4 hereinabove referred to. The base of the hem 4 may also be defined as offset from the predetermined plane of fold of the strip I in the structure of Fig. 6.

I claim as my invention:

1. An edging for spring assemblies for upholstery, comprising a strip of padding material adapted to be folded to embrace a peripheral edge of such an assembly, and a strip of fabric substantially coincident in width and of the same length as said padding strip and equipped midway between its side edges with a ute defining the normal line of fold of said padding strip disposed over one face of the latter and secured along its .side edge portions to the side edge portions of said padding strip, with said flute projecting outwardly from the outer face of said fabric strip.

2. A spring assembly equipped along a peripheral edge with an edging comprising a folded strip of a padding material such as felt, said, strip equipped with a cover fabric over one face thereof which is secured thereto along the side edge portions thereof, said cover fabric equipped with an outwardly projecting flute midway between its side edges, said padding strip and cover fabric being folded along a line coincident substantially with the innermost portion of said ute into embracing relationto said peripheral edge and secured to the latter by means, such as stitching, passing through inner edge portion of the folded edgingiand through the terminal coils of springs of the assembly, the outermost portion of said flute being adapted to be received between the meeting edges of the boxing strip and cover fabricef a mattress and secured thereto.

ANTHONY J. SCHOB. 

